Laetiporus sulphureus is native to North America and Europe. Laetiporus means
”bright spores,” and sulphureus means sulphur-like, a reference to the bright yellow or yellow-orange
color. (Don’t confuse the common names “chicken of the woods”
for this species with “hen of the woods” for the completely unrelated and different-appearing Grifola frondosa).

Identification: Sulphur shelf is so brightly colored that it is
hard to miss, and hard to confuse with other species. It is a bracket fungus, meaning that it grows
from the sides of trees. It inhabits oaks and other hardwoods, on the sides of trees, causing a brown heart rot in the wood.
It is composed of many horizontal layers called shelves. Each shelf is 1¾-20" (5-50 cm) across and
up to 1½" (4 cm) thick, uneven, yellow to orange; clusters sometimes weigh up to 50 pounds.

Laetiporus cincinnatus also appears in eastern
North America, but it is found near the ground, inhabiting roots and butts, sometimes appearing to grow
from the ground near the base of trees. See MushroomExpert.com.

Edibility: Delicious. Tastes like chicken. Eat it when it is young,
and cook it (for example, sauté it in butter and shallots). If you find it in
the eastern United States, it is nearly impossible to mis-identify. However, the similar-appearing
west coast species Laetiporus gilbertsonii, is not tolerated
well by some, and
Laetiporus conifericola is not edible. Until recently,
these three species were thought to be one and the same. So the rule is that you should think twice if you
find “sulphur shelf” on the west coast, but the east coast variety is okay.

Roughly 75 people in North America are poisoned each year by mushrooms, often from eating a poisonous species that resembles an edible species. Though deaths are rare, there is no cure short of a liver transplant for severe poisoning. Don’t eat any mushroom unless you are absolutely certain of its identity! Please don’t trust the identifications on this site. We aren’t mushroom experts and we haven’t focused on safely identifying edible species.